


Even in the Words There Is Mystery

by Papaveri



Series: Rete Mirabile [2]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Genre: Body Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-30
Updated: 2015-01-30
Packaged: 2018-03-09 16:46:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3257159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papaveri/pseuds/Papaveri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes two months for Knoll to fall in love and still his body is not ready for the impact.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even in the Words There Is Mystery

**Author's Note:**

> Same as in From Inside, the black hands thing is not actually canon.

It's something about the way the prince's sentences get fuller only when he speaks of miracles, of changing history, of  _ being the first to do this, with our hands _ , something about the way they're heavier than spells and shining like silver between his teeth; Knoll is grateful he's not supposed to look at him directly in the eye.

The day before it all starts, the prince talks as if he was breathing fire; his words are red and hot and fascinating.

“We have all worked together for this, but I must do it alone.”

And trembling.

Knoll can feel that trembling deep inside his bones and his love, burgundy and hiding between his ribs, cuts a smile in his face.

 

But.

The emperor looks like he does in the older portraits of the palace, his skin the color of paint; he looks like his heart is not strong enough to push the right amount of blood out on his veins. The prince takes his eyes off him just for a moment when he hears Knoll come in the chamber.

Knoll shudders when the prince says his name (with a second of hesitation, but the single syllable of his name rolls liquid against his palate and that's enough).

Knoll shudders when the emperor opens his eyes (as if the miracle in front of him could snap his neck and eat him up).

And then the prince talks with a new calmness in a voice that sounds too steady, and shatters the Sacred Stone of Grado with a hand like a living ember, black to the elbow; his left eyelid falls slightly before the right and there's something,  _ something _ like the aftertaste of dark magic pulsating inside him and when Knoll looks at the curve of his neck, almost unnaturally pale, he feels the primal urge to rearrange him, to erase everything in him that looks wrong  _ because it's not his it's not _ , to press against his faded lips and touch the blood seeping from his nose to his teeth.

Instead, he takes a step back.

 

**

Knoll knows the day of his death and it's a strange weight just above the pit of his stomach.

 

**

When dark magic is meant to hurt someone, it collides against every corner of one's mouth like sharp rocks and leaves a taste like ashes in the back of the throat; at the back of general Duessel, Knolls learns to swallow it and watches how the black at his fingertips claims more and more skin each day.

The princess of Renais talks to him just once, smiling with cloudy eyes. She phrases her questions almost like his brother, but her urgency is different, and doesn't avoid his gaze like he does. She stays silent only for a moment.

“You don't have to be on the battlefield. These are your countrymen, it must be harder on you.”

Knoll tells her he was judged a traitor, he might as well play the part (he's seen the prince from afar, wild and terrifying like the heart of a forest).

 

**

The princess' sword goes through Lyon's chest and for a second Knoll feels the snake around his ribcage that is his love coiling and pressing and going up to his neck and biting at his hips and wanting to swallow him. He sees how Lyon's body collapses, he sees the dirty charcoal hand leaving a sparkling red trail on the princess' golden shoulder guard, like the signature at the end of a letter.

After the battle it's all so quiet the sound of him ripping a piece of Lyon's robe is earth-shattering, resonating right against his jaw. The prince's robes are nice, and the heavy threads don't give out easily, his hands are not enough, his hands are not enough.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a reference to something Saint Gerome said about translating the Bible, because every translator quotes him at some point or another. Not like this, mind you, but it's the thought that counts. It was about the words of the Bible being sacred in themselves (so there's no changing the order or stuff like that you can do in regular texts, because EVERYTHING is a part of the sacred meaning).
> 
> Colette is also soooo to blame for this, really. The last scene is mostly their idea, afterall.
> 
> And! You'll see this tagged as part of a series, which is something that occurred to me /while/ I was writing. I might try to do something with Eirika too at some point, but I would have to basically rewrite Lyon for it and I want to be... not academically stressed for it.
> 
> Thanks for reading as always!


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